Even fellow Muslims were worried: “An Army psychiatrist who authorities say went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood was so conflicted over what to tell fellow soldiers about fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan that a local Islamic leader was deeply troubled by it, the leader said Saturday. Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, said he was disturbed by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s persistent questioning and recommended the mosque reject Hasan’s request to become a lay Muslim leader at the sprawling Army post.”

Must just be a coincidence: “Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year. The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.” Nothing to see. Move along.

If you combine unemployment with underemployment, the number is 17.5 percent.

An apt description of Bob McDonnell’s successful strategy: “He didn’t run away from God, guns, gays and abortion, but he didn’t talk much about them, either. Rather, he kept a wonkish, cool-headed focus on improving roads (a plan full of holes, but a plan nonetheless), raising teacher pay (ditto), and creating jobs. By criticizing the Democrats’ cap-and-trade climate change legislation and the card check measure to ease union organizing, he skillfully conflated growing doubts about the Obama administration’s leftward tilt with his campaign’s main thrust — safeguarding jobs, attracting employers and reviving the state’s economy.”

Stuart Rothenberg: “Bill Owens’ victory in New York’s 23rd was the good news for Democrats this week and continued the party’s winning streak in competitive House special elections. But the dynamic that helped Owens win- including a divided Republican Party- can’t be ignored and aren’t likely to be replicated again. For now, his reelection next year is a Pure Toss-Up.”

Debra Saunders observes: “CAIR will make a stink when (male) imams are not allowed to board a Minneapolis plane, but don’t expect the organization to make an issue of honor killings.”

David Ignatius is the latest to notice the abject failure of the Obama foreign-policy team: “The diplomatic stalemate is a setback for the Obama administration, which had made engagement with Iran one of its signature issues. As the administration is discovering, getting to ‘yes’ with Tehran for now seems all but impossible. This reversal follows the breakdown in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the other issue on which President Obama had attempted a bold new start, only to be enveloped by the bitter legacy of the past.”

Even Thomas Friedman can figure it out: “The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play. It is obvious that all the parties are just acting out the same old scenes, with the same old tired clichés — and that no one believes any of it anymore.”

On the domestic front, the obvious does not escape the new Newsweek: “But to conclude that Democrats have no worries is ‘denial on steroids,’ says Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a veteran of the Clinton White House. However worthy and necessary the Obama priorities of health-care reform and climate-change legislation are, exit polls on Tuesday show the economy and jobs are the top priority for voters. ‘People give you credit for working on the problems that are most important to them, even if you don’t solve them. If you’re talking about things that seem peripheral, they will punish you,’ says Galston.”

del.icio.us

Google

Facebook

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 7:00 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.